Short Course: Process Tracing (QMMR 3)

This course will cover the underlying logic and best practices of process tracing, which is a within-case method of developing and testing causal explanations of individual cases. The first session of the course will briefly summarize the philosophy of science behind explanation via reference to hypothesized causal mechanisms. It will then outline the logic of process tracing in terms of Bayesian methods of inference, including the application of “hoop tests,” “smoking gun tests,” “doubly decisive tests,” and “straw in the wind tests.”

The second session of the course will focus on best practices and examples of process tracing, including the more inductive use of process tracing for theory development as well as its deductive use for theory testing. As time allows, and depending on the number of students, the instructors will ask students to outline briefly how they plan to use process tracing in their current research project. This will allow the instructors and fellow students to offer constructive advice on how best to carry out process tracing in each student’s project.

**All Short Courses will take place on Wednesday, August 30 at the APSA 2017 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.**

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April 26, 2019Comments Off on Press Gallery: APSA Members in the Media

The Week in Writing: April 9 to April 25, 2019 Recent blogs and op-eds authored by APSA members Shutdowns and Their Discontents Josh Chafetz, LegBranch.org, April 9, 2019 The Constitution Doesn’t Say Enough About [...]